Nuke talks collapsing as US opposes Iran’s pick for UN envoy

Washington and Tehran are again at odds after the United States Senate voted this week to ban the Iranian diplomat nominated to serve as his country’s ambassador to the United Nations from entering the US.

The Senate overwhelmingly agreed on Monday this week that Iran’s
pick for UN envoy, Hamid Aboutalebi, shouldn’t be allowed to step
foot in the US due to his alleged role in the 1979 hostage crisis
at the American Embassy in Tehran. Aboutalebi denies being
directly involved in the stand-off, during which 52 Americans
were held hostage amidst high tensions between nations for 444
days.

Nevertheless, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had no problem convincing
his colleagues on Capitol Hill to speak up against what he called
a “deliberate and unambiguous insult to the United
States” courtesy of Iran.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to
soon vote in favor of the ban as well, but the effort is being
considered largely a symbolic one since only the White House is
authorized to approve such sanctions. US President Barack Obama’s
press secretary, Jay Carney, has said the administration is
indeed opposed to the nomination, however, and now the future of
discussions between both America and Iran over the latter
country’s alleged nuclear program is up in the air as the
argument intensifies.

Renewed tensions between the rival countries come at a point in
which leadership in both the US and Iran has only now opened up
to one another about Iran’s nuclear program. A conversation last
September between Pres. Obama and Iran’s newly elected President
Hassan Rouhani was reportedly the first time that heads of either
country have spoken in more than 30 years, and afterwards Obama
said “I believe we can reach a
comprehensive solution.”

“Rouhani has indicated that Iran will never develop nuclear
weapons,” Obama said after last year’s surprise phone call,
and hailed it as a “major step forward in a new relationship
between the United States and the Islamic Republican of
Iran.”

Only a few months later, however, White House secretary Carney
now says that the administration finds the nomination of
Aboutalebi “extremely troubling” and that “The US
government has informed the government of Iran that this
potential selection is not viable.”

“In our viewpoint, the ambassador who has been introduced is
qualified for the position and has had important diplomatic posts
in European countries and Australia and has had a good, effective
and positive performance during his past [diplomatic]
missions,”The Guardian quoted Iranian foreign ministry
spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as responding, according to Iranian
television.

Aboutalebi, 56, has previously served as Iran’s ambassador to
three countries and the European Union, but is perhaps most
infamously known in America for his alleged role within Muslim
Students Following the Imam's Line — the group who occupied the
US Embassy in Tehran during the year-long stand-off at the end of
the administration of then-President Jimmy Carter. According to
the Guardian, Aboutalebi says his role within the organization
was one limited to “translation and negotiation.”

But American politicians on both the left and the right aren’t
convinced, and are now insisting that Iran invites someone else
to serve the country’s role as ambassador to the UN, even if
talks between nations concerning the Iranian nuclear program have
progressed to a point previously unseen.

“Given the larger strategic threats to the United States and
our allies, represented by Iran’s nuclear ambitions, this is not
the moment for diplomatic niceties,” Cruz said this week,
according to the Guardian. “I am proud to join my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle on this national security issue that
transcends political parties,” he said prior to Monday’s vote.

“We ought to close the door on him, and others like him,
before he even comes to the United States, and that’s exactly
what this bill will do,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York)
added of the Cruz-led bill he voted in favor of.

"We think the process is running its diplomatic course and
until we receive a formal response from official channels, we do
not consider the matter finished," Afkham told US media from
the Iranian ministry this week, according to the Guardian.

On Tuesday, Mohammad Hassan Asafari — a member of the Iranian
Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission —
also spoke up to oppose Washington’s latest remarks.

"The US Senate action to bar Aboutalebi's entry as Iran's
designated ambassador at the UN is sheer interference in the
internal affairs of the UN," Iran’s Fars News quoted Asafari as saying. “The
Americans are not entitled to the right to oppose the entry of
the Islamic Republic of Iran's representative at the UN and the
US Senate approval is illegal."